Researchers at EPFL's Computer Graphics and Geometry Laboratory found a way to control "caustics", the patterns that appear when light hits a water surface or any transparent material. Thanks to an elaborate algorithm, they ...

The melting of the Greenland ice sheet is speeding up and 2012 already seems to be a record year in terms of this thawing. The potential consequences of this melt on the climate and on the rise of sea levels are such that ...

(Phys.org)—New findings from an international research team led by Western University geography professor Brian Luckman, based on tree-ring patterns, show unusual patterns of tree growth in the Southern Hemisphere relating ...

(AP)—When Linda Bugbee's husband suggested traveling to the South Pacific to see a total solar eclipse, she was more enthusiastic about the cruise and visiting Tahiti than she was about seeing a celestial phenomenon.

European scientists developed solid-state semiconductor components with magnetic properties, a prerequisite for a new generation of electronic devices exploiting both the charge and the spin of electrons.

(Phys.org)—Moses Chan, co-author of a paper published in 2004 describing work that resulted in claims of the discovery of supersolid helium, has now co-authored another paper, published in Physical Review Letters, describing ...

Sukumarakurup Krishnakumar, assistant professor of management, and Doug Rymph, co-wrote the paper, "Uncomfortable Ethical Decisions: The Role of Negative Emotions and Emotional Intelligence in Ethical Decision-making," which ...

Electronic books, which have sparked excited chatter for several years in the publishing world, are now gaining momentum among European readers, despite a late start compared to the US, industry insiders say.

Phenomenon

A phenomenon (from Greek φαινόμενoν), plural phenomena, is any observable occurrence. Phenomena are often, but not always, understood as 'appearances' or 'experiences'. These are themselves sometimes understood as involving qualia.

The term came into its modern philosophical usage through Immanuel Kant, who contrasted it with noumenon (for which he used the term Ding an sich, or "thing-in-itself"), which, in contrast to phenomena, are not directly accessible to observation. Kant was heavily influenced by Leibniz in this part of his philosophy, in which phenomenon and noumenon serve as interrelated technical terms.